EFF and others file suit against Sony-BMG

The EEF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and several other groups have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of those affected by the Sony-BMG fiasco.

On November 14, 2005, the EFF wrote an open letter to Sony-BMG with several demands. Most notably, the EFF demanded that Sony-BMG recall all CDs with First4Internet’s XCP technology; and more interestingly, all CDs with SunnComm’s MediaMax copy protection technology.

The EFF also demanded that Sony-BMG remove misleading statements such as XCP “…is not malicious and does not compromise security”, refund the purchase price of the CD, cooperate with anti-virus/spyware companies, and “widely publicize the potential security and other risks associated with the XCP and SunnComm MediaMax technology.”

While Sony-BMG did recall the XCP CDs and has made some public attempt to alert affected customers, the EFF believes these actions fall considerably short. In particular, the EFF’s demand that Sony-BMG recall CDs with SunnComm’s MediaMax technology – somewhere in the order of 20 million CDs - appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Among the others who are suing are the State of Texas, claiming Sony-BMG violated its anti-spyware law.